Levels of Experiences, Part Three

Beyond memorable, meaningful, and transporting to transformative

This post continues the discussion of the Delta Model. Part One covered the introduction and took us from memorable to meaningful, and Part Two discussed transporting experiences. This final part goes over transformative experiences (again with no introduction).

Joe

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Transformative Experiences

So what does it take to turn a transporting experience into a transformative one? Primarily, encapsulating the experience with three activities: preparation beforehand, reflection afterward, and integration on an ongoing basis.[i]

Encapsulate transporting experience with three activities: preparation, reflection, and integration

Preparation involves imagining the experience before it happens, picturing its sequence of events, thinking about what it would be like, ideally even envisioning the effect it would have on you.[ii] Such contemplation before the experience engages guests in anticipating the experience, primes them to have an even better experience, and puts them in the right frame of mind, opening them up to the possibility of transformation.

Reflection happens when you look back on an experience, not just to remember it, but to ponder it, maybe to discuss it with others, always to consider its impact on you, individually. We don’t reflect on all our experiences, and companies don’t do enough to encourage, instigate, or even participate in reflection. But when it happens it helps cement memories of our experiences, aid us in viewing them as meaningful, relive that which is transporting – and begin the process of being transformed by them. 

While thinking back on any experience, reflection also enables you to simultaneously look forward. It can get you thinking about who you are in light of the experience you just encountered. It’s connecting what you experienced to your own identity, testing for a “sympathetic vibration” that resonates with who you are – and who you might become. And it can lead you then to desire change, to formulate an aspiration, even to commit to the journey of transformation. And that leads to integration. 

Integration takes reflection and puts it in action. It’s where you begin working on the transformation, which often starts with an understanding of the size and nature of the gap between what you now aspire to become and where you are today. You explore various ways of behaving and being, noticing when and where you fall short – itself a re-reflection around which integration iterates – and endeavor to close the gap with each opportunity, realizing sometimes regress follows progress. Working to integrate your experiences into your life resides in a liminal place and time, and that is when people are likely to seek help – a guide who can make integration take place more effectively, more surely, and perhaps more efficiently.

Perhaps no company takes the tripartite experience encapsulation of preparation, reflection, and integration more seriously than Explorer X, a travel design company based in Seattle. Founded by Michael Bennett and Jake Haupert – the two of whom not coincidentally also founded the Transformational Travel Council – Explorer X is “dedicated to crafting truly epic travel experiences that have a profound and lasting impact on your life. Our ultimate goal? To inspire you to live a more mindful and meaningful life that creates positive change in your life and in the lives of those around you.”[iii] Never merely memorable, the highly customized travel experiences Explorer X designs, books, and encapsulates for its clients – make that explorers – are meaningful at a minimum, almost always at some point transporting, and frequently transformative. As CEO Michael Bennett – who did his doctoral dissertation on transformational travel, essentially designing Explorer X – told me, “What we’ve found over the years is that, in terms of desired outcomes, most people don’t have specific goals or intentions in mind for their travel experiences before they embark. What they do know is that when they approach travel with a curious heart and open mind, something inevitably will happen along the way that invites them to consider new ideas, perspectives, and ways of living.”

Experience encapsulation is key to the Explorer X’s success